One of our six employee offerings is Responsibility & Sustainability, reflecting our commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Our employees can get involved in and benefit from a range of programmes, and one of these is volunteering and we offer three types:
- STEM Outreach: Our Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) Outreach programme is designed to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to promote economic prosperity and to address current and future skills shortages in these disciplines. Activities range from the Powerboat challenge and the events we ran in support of International Women in Engineering Day (see video below), to careers events.
- Environmental volunteering: provides a great opportunity to participate in and contribute to meaningful environmental action. It increases engagement and wellbeing, increases awareness and learning around environmental issues while making a positive difference in our local communities by protecting the natural environment.
- Skills-based volunteering: We promote a skilled-based approach, so as well as STEM Outreach for our scientist and engineers, those in the People Function offer careers advice, project managers run community projects, and those with business expertise take on roles such as a school governor.
Volunteering programmes have many positive outcomes; for our communities, our employees and our wider business. For our people, taking time to contribute to something they feel is worthwhile is really rewarding, beneficial for their wellbeing, and has been shown to be an excellent way to improve a variety of skills. The “five ways to wellbeing” is a powerful framework and volunteering can provide opportunities to achieve most or all of these factors.
Giving our time to do something rewarding, connecting with colleagues or new people, getting away from your desk and being active and taking time notice what is important around you, are all good for you. Volunteering is also widely recognised to be beneficial for improving existing skills or learning new ones, from improving how to communicate, to engaging with stakeholders, planning and delivery; it can be a fun and rewarding way to practice and increase knowledge and experience.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many volunteers across QinetiQ for the amazing work they do.